The present invention relates to chemical reaction chambers, particularly to a chemical reaction chamber combined with means for augmenting heat/cooling using the Peltier effect, and more particularly to a micromachined silicon or high thermal conductivity reaction chamber in combination with devices such as doped polysilicon for heating, bulk silicon for convective cooling, and thermoelectric coolers to augment the heating and cooling rates of such chambers.
Instruments generally used for performing chemical synthesis through thermal control and cycling are very large (table-top size) and inefficient. They typically work by heating and cooling a large thermal mass (e.g. an aluminum block) that has inserts for test tubes. Recently, efforts have been directed to miniaturize these instruments by designing and constructing reaction chambers out of silicon and silicon-based materials (e.g., silicon nitride, polycrystalline silicon) that have integrated heaters and cooling via convection through the silicon. Those miniaturization efforts are exemplified by copending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/938,106, filed Aug. 31, 1992, entitled “Microfabricated Reactor now U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,423 issued Jun., 17, 1997”; Ser. No. 08/489,819, filed Jun. 13, 1995, entitled “Diode Laser Heated Micro-Reaction Chamber with Sample Detection Means”; and Ser. No. 08/492,678 filed Jun. 20, 1995, entitled “Silicon-Based Sleeve Devices for Chemical Reactions now U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,136 issued Dec. 31, 1996,” each assigned to the same assignee.
The present invention is a chemical reaction chamber that combines doped polysilicon for heating, bulk silicon for convective cooling, and thermoelectric devices to augment the heating and cooling rates of the chamber. The combination of the reaction chamber with the thermoelectric device enables the heat contained in the thermally conductive areas to be used/reused to heat the device, thereby conserving energy and expediting the heating/cooling rates. The chemical reaction chamber may be composed of micromachined silicon or any high thermal conductivity material. The thermoelectric mechanism comprises, for example, a Peltier device.